character saturday: finn revised

"Hey" I hear you say... "didn't we see this guy last week?". To which I would reply, yes, yes you did... but a thing happened that happens more than I would like in some cases... the day after posting it, I suddenly realised that his tattoo needed to be completely different and also that I wanted to lean into the full monochromatic costume a little more.

So now his tattoo has an in-universe reason for being there and a significance beyond "sailor". And I'm much happier with the outfit. Again, in-universe I think there is probably a long coat that goes with it. I had a vague idea about a big wolf fur coat, but all the jackets in Hero Forge are a dumpster fire, plus we don't have any fur coats for some reason. But I'm imagining something big and warm and fluffy and grey. And possibly with a hood.

I'm still pondering. There is definitely a jacket tho.

I also had a further conversation with Fluffy about certain details, and some thoughts I'd had during the week... so I'm definitely finding my way closer to the Finn of it all. The gender swap was definitely the right call.

Anyway...

Soup this week was tuna mornay. So, not actually soup. Once again, I forgot to buy cheese specifically to make the sauce into a mornay, but had half a block in the fridge, so just used that instead. Generally it was pretty good, I could still go harder on the spices honestly.

In Mini Media Reviews we start off with Fackham Hall, which honestly could have gone either way. It could have been one of those very stupid, run the joke into the ground comedies, and it is that on occasion, but they also know when enough is enough, so we got back to a joke only a couple of times instead of repeating it til it's no longer funny. And while a lot of the humor is very, very dumb, some of it manages to be smart at the same time. It was much better than I was expecting and quite enjoyed it.

Next up was Diamonds (or Diamanti in the original Italian). Honestly, the blurb for this absolutely does not do it justice. A beautiful movie within a movie about a group of women who makes costumes for movies. I also didn't realise until later that I'd seen one of this director's movies before... back in GayMovieFest 2012. Specifically The Turkish Bath. This is a much better movie overall.

Then the rest of the week was taken up with Lost in Space, the 2018 Netflix Original show. The first season anyway. I don't know that I'd bother with the rest of the show, which is good because not only does the library not have it, other reviews I've seen say it gets worse... and the first season is already a little confused about what it wants to be.

Because it spends the entire first season kind of getting to the "lost" part of the title. I mean, yeah, they're lost, but so is half the ship, on the same planet with them, it's only at the end that they get lost from everybody else.

And the show is not completely sure what it wants to be. You employ Parker Posey as Dr Smith, then make the character fucking horrible and the camp that Posey brings to it doesn't line up with the rest of the tone of the show. Then you make the characters often make really dumb decisions for people who supposedly went through a lot of fucking training to end up on another planet. And people do the dumb thing instead of, I dunno, talking to the other members of their family. 

Visually it's stunning. They spent that Netflix money well. But they clearly didn't really spend enough of it on good writers. Everybody, acting wise, is doing the best that they can with what they're given, it's just that what they've been given is... not great.

So it was entertaining, but I'm not sad I only saw the first season.

I did, also, give up on Stray. I never went back to it, and then the library reminded me it couldn't be extended and I realised I didn't care. So it went back unfinished. Which is okay, I've seen other people play it.

Wednesday ended up being a complete waste of time because I had a doctor's appointment over the phone at 11:20am... guess what time they actually called me. Yep, you guessed it. 4:30pm. And, of course, it's not like the doctor actually apologised when he called. Just plowed straight on like this was the correct time. The assholery. The audacity. The disrespect.

But it was all basically fine, and we just put the issue off for another six months.

Otherwise it was something of a quite week... definitely compared with the last few.

Friday Night DnD was yet more wandering through passageways til we find thing to murder. What I'm finding amusing is everybody else at the table is having these wild reactions too the weird fucked up critters we're encountering, and my general reaction is "oh, yeah, that's cool". The body horror is neither bodying nor is it horroring. Which I'm fine with.

I will say that the latter half of this adventure just devolving into "enter this underground space, kill this monster, enter next underground space, kill that monster, repeat until heat death of the universe" is... kinda dull.

But at least we're getting the real fucked up critters now.

Anyway...

You know it's been a cold morning in a sequence of cold mornings when I go to the supermarket in a full hoodie and leave it on the whole time.

After the supermarket and the associated whatever, we did the Big W and Kmart run, partially because the sun was out and it was a nice day for it.... and the back window has been collecting condensation overnight a bit the last few days, so I wanted to really give it some proper sun.

We ended up getting the fitted sheets I've been looking for from Kmart. Meaning I can replace the one I ripped and I have one that matches the new bedding.

So a good run in general.

After Ma left I did end up having an unexpected gentleman caller... mostly unexpected because we'd arranged for him to swing by Sunday night... but he said he had to go past this afternoon, so why the fuck not. Will he also swing by Sunday... possibly. So yes, Slutty Winter 2026 continues.

On a slightly related note, it's always funny to me when, if you spend enough time on the right gentlemen's apps, you will eventually get to see the people you were friends with essentially three decades ago at this point fully bare ass naked. And you think to yourself... well, I definitely would have then, and I still definitely would, even though, or possibly because you're less skinny twink and more filled out dad bod... but also, that's a nice penis. It did, in fact, take large amounts of self control to not message him immediately. Will I if he shows up again? Well, it's not out of the question. Because why the fuck not. Will it actually lead to anything? Highly doubtful... but you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

character saturday: genderswap swashbuckler

So there are some characters where you just need to make an adjustment and then instantly realise that it was the right choice.

Thus was the case with Pearl. Now I'd already updated her hair after I posted that previous version, because the white dreads weren't working for me, so she ended up with red hair with a white streak, potentially that streak was going to widen over time.

But part of the reason that I was leaning towards a female barbarian was firstly, female barbarian, but secondly, because I was working on that idea while playing my, at the time, male character. Then Molly happened. So I started wondering about rejigging Pearl somewhat. And while I considered playing around with the background and maybe the subclass, I just wanted to see what Pearl might look like as a man. But then the skin tone was bothering me, and he needed new hair... 

Weirdly the face didn't get much of an update, but somehow (possibly because of the skin tone) Finn came out looking less harsh. It could also be the eyes. 

Thus Finn was born. The name took a minute. He went through a couple of iterations of name, and yes, he's fully aware that as somebody who grew up on a fishing boat and then became a sailor, the name Finn has inherent comedy value. But if you think you've got a joke he hasn't already heard, give it your best shot.

I think this is also the first character I've made with a hairy chest (at least a visible one). Well, other than Wrath from forever ago, but he was more an idea than a fully fledged character. But it's mostly because we still don't have body hair decals in Hero Forge (because clearly we need yet another set of shitty swords instead). So I fudged this in Photoshop. And once I'd done it, he stopped looking right without it. Now, sure, he should actually have hairy arms too, but I couldn't really be bothered with that specific level of detail.

But once I'd finished fussing with the details, before I even settled on a name, I realised that he was the correct answer. I liked Pearl, she could have been fun to play, but I think I instantly got Finn. And yes, some of the things I got are perhaps details pulled from other elements of pop culture. Finn wants to remind you he's a captain, even if he's currently sans ship. Finn doesn't get angry when he rages, he gets a little crazed, laughing into battle.

DM Fluffy also gave me a couple of little tidbits on Friday night when I mentioned the change that will probably factor into the Finn of it all. I honestly can't remember a time when I've just gender swapped a character like this without also essentially rebuilding them. And nothing about Pearl's build or backstory changed with the switch to Finn, just the cosmetic details.

Anyway...

It was yet another various of minestrone for soup this week. They're always just a little different, but generally good.

The Mini Media Reviews for this week should have included Stray, the video game about a little orange cat and it's robot buddy... but I just don't enjoy the "combat" sections of the game, so I don't think I'm going to finish it. It's not like I don't know how it ends, I've seen videos of people playing the whole game, so I'm not really missing out on anything. It just turns out it's not really my thing.

Otherwise it was The Batman earlier in the week. Quite possibly the worst movie I've seen in a while. And definitively the worst Batman movie ever. When you have your Batman just walking through the front door or places, or just wandering around following Jim Gordon around a crime scene you've absolutely fucked up. Also the editing and cinematography are awful... and if I actually notice, they're real bad. Basically every single decision was the wrong answer on a multiple choice quiz. Emo Bruce Wayne? No. Wayne Manor being an unused set from Harry Potter? No. Andy Serkis as Alfred? No. Batman continually taking his outfit off to motorbike through the streets? No. Disguising The Riddler's identity with no actual payoff? No. Actually, The Riddler in general? No. Also, the movie being 3 hours long and literally nothing happening the whole time? No.

Actually that last one might be one of the more egregious ones. It barely has anything I would classify as "an action scene", or at least an actual scene that isn't unintentionally a comedy. Because this Batman has never heard of a window or a skylight and only walks through the front doors of locations.

Also, RPatz does his very best with the terrible material he's been given, and he is good, but he Zoe Kravitz somehow have negative chemistry... they're both very charismatic people, they just somehow repel each other.

Otherwise I finished The Nevers. The lack of Whedon (problematic as he may be) did make itself felt between the first and second halves, I'll be honest. It was still good, don't get me wrong. It just occasionally lacked some... sparkle. Some of the characters just felt a little flat. But because they knew they were only getting a single season, they did manage to wrap up the story in a way that did leave room for the possibility of continuing while still feeling narratively satisfying.

There was a fair bit of running around earlier in the week, as has been the norm for the past few weeks, so I decided to bookend that with another trip to the sauna for Bear Night. Not quite as successful a night as the last time, and I think it will be a minute before I go again. Maybe on a special occasion.

Friday Night DnD featured a brief crossover to the "other party", and Molly managed to develop a third eye. Because why not.

Anyway...

Not a lot to report from today, it decided to start raining just after we finished at the supermarket, so there wasn't much incentive to go anywhere.

character saturday: fashionable lady

There are some characters I can't help going back to and tinkering with. Especially when new Hero Forge items appear that are much more in line with how I actually envisaged the character. Or just put a new spin on somebody.

Especially since I always described this character as "if dwarves had fashion models, she would be one". 

So this week's DnD Character Colouring Book is a return to Lady Ovelia Opalfist... a character who is dead and gone, but even so, deserved a new outfit. This is the third version... the first being back in the actual hand (Photoshop) colouring days. The second version I was very happy with at the time. And I still like it, but then they dropped the new "Strappy Corset" and the Victorian/Edwardian inspired "Sleeved Fitted Shirt", and here we are. The colour zones on the shirt aren't perfect, but I had absolutely pictured her wearing a corset not dissimilar to this ones, so the overall look definitely works. Even if I did have to slightly cheat the long sleeves with a set of gloves.

There may also be some backstage tinkering to add a brooch to the neck of her shirt, just because that feels right to me... and I'd need to look it up, but her trinket might have been a Dwarven made brooch.

Anyway...

There are times when I really shouldn't follow a soup recipe I find on Instagram. It wasn't bad, per say. It wasn't a disaster... it was just... really fucking boring. Which is kind of what happens when you make the thing I've basically been referring to as chowder, but you leave out either chicken or chorizo or both. It was an experiment that I won't be repeating.

The Mini Media Reviews for this week start with Ammonite. A movie that is somewhat the lesbian equivalent of The History of Sound from the week before... but slightly worse in that the two main characters are actually real people this time but the lesbianism and their relationship are all an invention of writer/director Francis Lee... which kind of deflated the movie somewhat for me. But both Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan are excellent.

Next up was the first half of the first and only season of The Nevers. A very Joss Whedon show. Good though, as his stuff very often is. This is also the last show he worked on before all the allegations about him came to light, and I don't think he worked on the second half at all. But a number of other familiar behind the scenes names from Buffy and other projects were also on this, and the sixth (and possibly best of the first half arc) episode is fully written by Jane Espenson, which doesn't surprise me in the slightest. So we'll see how the second half arc works out, given that it was made a couple of years later. Hopefully they manage to wrap up some of the ideas since they knew it wasn't going ahead.

Just as a sidebar, and for various reasons, I've spent entirely too much time this week in healthcare professional's offices, getting poked and prodded and tested and stabbed with needles. With at least one more to come next week.

Speaking of, Friday was also Chiro Day.

Friday Night DnD was... slightly weird, because it turns out that last week's guest star wasn't all she appeared to be. And most of the dungeon felt strangely empty, partially because we avoided a couple of combat encounters that we really didn't have to do. So we're definitely in the final act. 

Anyway...

Not much to report from the Supermarket Safari, although the nice folks who make the coffee I like have made a refill so I don't have to keep buying big glass jars, since I have so fucking many of them at this point it's getting ridiculous. Although, for unexplained reasons, the coffee comes in jars that are either 200g or 400g... the refill was 300g... [confused face].

Afterwards we did a trip to Kmart to look at fitted sheets... but the problem with having looked online is when the colour on the website doesn't actually match the colour the item is in person. So I might still end up with it, because it's the best option without spending entirely too much money, but it does come back to my general complaint with bedding manufacturers who don't seem to believe that colour exists. And strong colours exist. And some of us actually want strong colours and not neutral on neutral on neutral. Because that's fucking boring.

But I've complained about that a number of times.